New opera and a new Ring in Houston

Houston Grand Opera's 2013-14 season includes the first instalment of their new Ring Cycle, using the production by the Catalan company La Fura del Baus first seen in Valencia, Spain. Also included in the season will be a new opera by Ricky Ian Gordon and the American premiere of Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Holocaust opera The Passenger.

The first instalment of the new Ring will see Patrick Summers conducting Das Rheingold with Iain Patterson making his Houston debut as Wotan and BBC Cardiff Singer of the World winner Jamie Barton as Fricka.  The Passenger will be performed in David Pountney's production first seen in Bregenz, which came to ENO in London in 2011 (see my review). Michelle Breedt will repriese her performance in the role of Liese.

Ricky Ian Gordon's new opera was commissioned by Houston Grand Opera and is their 52nd world premiere since 1973. Gordon's new piece A Coffin in Egypt is a monodrama, written for Frederica von Stade, and based on the play of the same name by Leonard Foglia, about a 90-year-old grand dame who has outlived her husband, her daughters and virtually everyone else in Egypt, Texas.

Further information from the Houston Grand Opera website.